Axe bow

The forefoot is deep and the freeboard relatively high, with little flare, so that the bow profile resembles an axe.

Because the deep forefoot does not generally rise above the water level, it is less susceptible to slamming.

The axe bow moves the centre of lateral area forwards and the vessel may need considerably more rudder motion to hold its course, and this increases with the wave steepness.

It offers an advantage of several percent in added resistance by incident waves over the ordinary bow shape.

It offers an advantage of about 5% over the Ax-box and a further similar amount over the ordinary bow from incident wave resistance.